RE: What human purpose does religion fill?
September 7, 2015 at 12:57 am
(This post was last modified: September 7, 2015 at 1:13 am by kramazeek.)
(September 7, 2015 at 12:35 am)brian1570 Wrote:(September 6, 2015 at 11:40 pm)kramazeek Wrote: I've often wonder why people gravitate towards religion and have found that the answer is difficult to find amongst those that do no believe. So let's spitball; what does religion provide that logic day to day existence does not? What did those that existed two thousand years ago get from an unprovable fantasy? The mind or the ego wanted something; what?
there are so so so many factors leading up to the creation of, and the continuation of, religion. The earlier purpose of religion was a feeble attempt to explain things that were otherwise inexplicable. the human brain has an innate, knee jerk reaction to fill itself full of possible explanations to fear of the unknown. when a child hears a noise in a dark room, it's the boogie man, or the monster under his bed. when a young human species encountered things like earth quakes or natural disasters, it's an angry god. However in this day and age when we are finding more and more scientific explanations for the happenings in the world around us, religion serves as a place to belong. It serves as a direction to follow. It serves as a "greater good". which i think that last part is certainly up for debate. one thing that has remained true about the purpose of religion since the beginning is that is serves as a way for the few to control the many.
but what do i know. i'm just an idiot punching away at tiny squares on a box that magically talks to other peoples magic boxes.
I agree, but I think at the consumer level it's simpler. I person either wants to understand what is unknown or they want something other that what is known and undesirable. It's as though religion becomes a placeholder for human development and later that placeholder becomes an impediment for the very same reason. Where once it provided comfort against the unknown it now provides comfort against the known. A no win for rational thought and progress?
(September 7, 2015 at 12:47 am)Whateverist the White Wrote:Isn't that something fear? Or some other common human reaction to the human condition? I certainly agree but isn't it common and simple at the root? I fear death so I won't die? I hate that my neighbor is eyeballing my Biblically hot wife so enough of that? What would the Christian Bible look like if it were written today? What common fears do we all possess and what would the psychological manifestations look like in the form of ra modern religion?(September 6, 2015 at 11:40 pm)kramazeek Wrote: I've often wonder why people gravitate towards religion and have found that the answer is difficult to find amongst those that do no believe. So let's spitball; what does religion provide that logic day to day existence does not? What did those that existed two thousand years ago get from an unprovable fantasy? The mind or the ego wanted something; what?
Logic doesn't and never will tell you what moves you or what will bring you fulfillment. For that you have to look to something within which is not answerable to logic. That is where religion got its toe-hold.
(September 7, 2015 at 12:50 am)Chuck Wrote:(September 7, 2015 at 12:47 am)Whateverist the White Wrote: Logic doesn't and never will tell you what moves you or what will bring you fulfillment. For that you have to look to something within which is not answerable to logic. That is where religion got its toe-hold.
In other words, people need religion to lie to them, to reassure them things whose real basis in reality can't be admitted to is well founded upon something made up that is putatively glamourous.
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I think yes; what does the core of religion look like and what shelter does it provide to humanity en masse? Is it a shelter from an uncomfortable psychological reality? Does man build a religion to shelter himself from an uncomfortable reality in the same way man builds a shelter to keep out the cold?